


A Country of Two

by Mythicalseries, shewasjustagirl



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Rating May Change, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 14:11:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11359104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mythicalseries/pseuds/Mythicalseries, https://archiveofourown.org/users/shewasjustagirl/pseuds/shewasjustagirl
Summary: In March 2011, Rhett and Link set off from Fuquay, North Carolina for Los Angeles, California on road trip that will change their lives in more ways than one.This is Rhett and Link's America.





	A Country of Two

**Author's Note:**

> Note that the rating is subject to change.
> 
> Many many thanks to [missingparentheses](http://archiveofourown.org/users/missingparentheses/pseuds/missingparentheses/) for reading this for us!

"Are you sure the table is gonna fit in there?" Jessie asked, her head cocked sideways at the sight of the packed truck.

The U-Haul was loaded up with nearly all of two families’ possessions, and Rhett and Link would soon head out on the open road.

They had been on many road trips together. They had even been paid for one of them -- they filmed a series of road trip videos during a cross-country sponsored trip for Alka-Seltzer. But this was different. TV opportunities awaited them in Los Angeles, and they had finally decided to make the big move. 

This meant packing up their lives and leaving the only home they'd ever really known. For years they had considered the possibility that the entertainment business would lead them away from North Carolina, but now that their possessions were in boxes in the back of a U-Haul truck, it was setting in for all of them -- Rhett and Link, two wives, and five children were moving to L.A.

Rhett frowned at Jessie and then at the already-full truck, confused. "What table?"

"What do you mean 'what table'? Our table."

"I thought we said we were gonna sell it."

"No… we're selling the _garden_ table. Not the other one."

Rhett sighed, pressing his fingers against his eyes. "Really, Jess? Couldn't you have told me that yesterday at least?"

"I did!” she complained, color rising in her cheeks. “I told you fifty times to put it on there first!"

"I think I'd remember if you said something about a table that's gonna take up half the truck!" Their voices got progressively louder as Rhett matched Jessie’s volume.

"C’mon, Link was there too! Are you really telling me neither of you heard a word I said?"

"Don't bring Link into this."

"You know what?” Jessie threw her hands in the air, every inch of her five-foot-three frame conveying one message -- she was going to win this fight. “It's fine, we’re not arguing about this. Just get that table on there."

Rhett stood slack-jawed, arms crossed, for a moment, looking back and forth between the moving van and Jessie. 

"Why do you want that table anyway? We can buy a new one when we get there." 

With their two young sons, the McLaughlins’ table had been through a lot. The heavy wooden surface was covered in scratches, water marks, and the occasional swipe of a stray permanent marker. It was nice, but it was getting old. 

"I don't want a new one, I want that one. It was a gift from my parents for our first house, remember?"

"Exactly. That was ten years ago, Jess. ‘Sides, your folks won't care."

"I care. A new one would be _just_ a table. This one has memories, Rhett.” The tiny woman was tapping her toe and using her ‘convincing’ voice, the one Rhett could almost never refuse. “How many family dinners with the boys do you think we've had on it?"

Realization dawned on Rhett. Maybe this wasn't about a table. His voice and eyes softened, and, uncrossing his arms, he spoke again. "Selling it doesn't erase all that. You know that, babe."

For a second, as Jessie searched his eyes, Rhett thought she was going to give in. 

He was wrong. "Well, we're not finding out, because we're not selling it, Rhett."

He took a deep breath, trying his best to keep it together. "Look, baby,” he said slowly. “The truck is all loaded up already. We can't fit the table in there. It's just not possible without unloading everything else."

"Then unload it."

"We're supposed to leave in an hour, Jess,” he laughed incredulously. “It's not happening."

She huffed out an angry laugh in reply and stared up into Rhett. "Well then call Link and tell him to get his ass down here to help, because you're sure not leaving North Carolina without that table on there. I'm serious."

With that, she turned on her heels and marched back inside their mostly-empty house. 

The instant Jessie was out of sight, Rhett turned into an eight-year-old kid throwing a silent fit behind his mother's back. He tore at his hair and mouthed an inaudible scream. Getting this table on the truck was going to be a huge pain. 

Once he pulled himself back together, he slumped his shoulders in resignation and tugged down at the front of his t-shirt. She wasn't changing her mind, and he knew he’d better get started.

Rhett stood with his arms crossed and one hand across his mouth as he stared at the open back end of the truck and thought of his engineering training. He needed to come up with a game plan before calling Link, because if Jessie was right about one thing, it was that he wouldn't be able to do this alone. At least not if they wanted to leave at a decent time.

After sizing everything up for a minute, he decided that the table wasn't going to fit unless they turned it upside down and put things on top of it - which would mean unloading a crap ton of things first, at least half the truck.

The sooner Link got there, the sooner they'd get it done and get on the road. They had mythical beasts waiting for them all across the country, after all, and he couldn't help but smile at that thought. 

_Hey_ , he texted Link. It wasn't intended as 'hello' -- they didn't do those -- but as a 'hey, hear me out’.

Link's reply came almost immediately. _What’s up?_

_We've got a problem, brother._

Not a second had passed before Rhett's phone started ringing in his hand and Link’s name appeared on the screen.

 

Within five minutes of his call with Rhett, Link had thrown his bag of clothes for the road trip over his shoulder, rounded up his family, and gotten the Neals in the car. While Link was on the phone, Christy had gotten a text from Jessie saying simply _I’m making pancakes._

Thirty minutes later, Link’s family was inside with Jessie and the boys, eating pancakes around the old kitchen table for the last time in North Carolina. 

“Chill out, man. We’ll make it.” Link’s laugh bounced off the aluminum walls inside the truck as he handed Rhett another box. Even though they were making quick work of unloading everything, Rhett hadn’t stopped grumbling about their task since Link got there. 

“I just can’t believe this is keeping us from getting on the road. A table! It’s just an old, wood table!” 

“Hey!” Link called out, stopping Rhett as he came close to slamming the box in his hands, marked ‘FRAGILE’, on the ground. “Rhett.” Link jumped down from the truck and grabbed his friend by the shoulders, forcing him to look into his eyes. “We’re fine. We don’t have any set times for the meetups. This isn’t going to slow us down by more than an hour or so. Breathe.”

Link could feel Rhett’s shoulders bunch up and then settle as he took a long breath and released it. “Okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Hop back up there and hand me that chair.”

Link grinned and punched at Rhett’s chest as he turned around. “It’s kind of a pain, but I get where she’s coming from, brother.”

Rhett lifted an eyebrow. “You what now?”

“Come on, Rhett. You think Jessie’s the only one putting things on this truck just for their sentimental value? At least you’ll be able to use the table.”

“What are you trying to say?” Rhett was squinting up at Link, holding the decorative chair between them without fully taking it from Link’s hands. “Because I got rid of most of my stuff.”

A mocking grin threatened at Link’s lips, but he settled his face and replied, pushing the chair into Rhett’s body. “It’s me too is what I’m saying. And Christy. And the kids. And even you, bo.”

The chair found its way to the ground, and Rhett kept quiet for a moment as he set another box on top of it. When he turned around again, Link was looking down at him from the truck with no box in his hands. 

“Don’t get mad, dude.”

“I’m not mad, I just don’t see anything we brought taking up half the truck.”

“Brother,” Link pointed to the side of the truck, where two nearly wall-sized posters of their ‘Up To This Point’ album cover were carefully wrapped in a child’s comforter. “What about those?”

Rhett shook his head. “We could use those. To decorate and stuff. That’s a business thing, man.”

“I think I have at least two boxes of ‘business stuff’ that are really just full of old knick-knacks.”

“Yeah, but...” Rhett saw what Link was getting at here, but that wasn’t the point. Of course the things they had used in their videos were coming on the trip. This was about moving out to California to continue working together. Following their dreams. “Next you’re going to tell me our cameras are just stuff we’re hanging onto.”

Link sized up the contents of the truck and grinned. “Let me show you something.”

He leaned over a set of twin mattresses and reached for a box marked only ‘Neals’. From it, Link retrieved a blanket and unrolled it to reveal an ancient-looking video camera. He sat down in front of Rhett with his legs crossed and handed it to him. “Remember this?”

“Oh my gosh.”

Rhett hadn’t seen the camera in over a decade. Nearly fifteen years ago, it had recorded a few thousand hours of him and Link during their college years, goofing off on trips and filming videos only a few of their friends ever saw. “Does it work?”

“With about a hundred dollars worth of batteries, yeah. But our phones take better video now.”

Rhett could only shake his head and smile. Had he thought about it, he would have assumed the camera had been sold or given away years ago. 

Link took the camcorder from Rhett and returned it to its blanket, standing to retrieve the final few boxes they needed to move in order to load the table onto the truck. “This whole thing is about us, Rhett. So go easy on Jessie, okay? She’s leaving home too.”

 

When Rhett's brother, Cole, showed up with his family half an hour later to say goodbye, he walked into a far different scene than he expected. Rather than joining a series of farewell hugs, he arrived just in time to get dragged into helping reload the truck.

He had been watching the two men come and go for about ten minutes, making conversation, when Link smirked at him from inside the truck. 

"You plan to just stand there, man?"

Rhett let out a boisterous laugh as he got down to grab another box. Link had spent so much time at the McLaughlins’ house growing up that Cole had become sort of an older brother to him as well. He was definitely closer to Rhett's brother than he ever was to his step siblings.

Cole chuckled. "Actually, yes."

"Grab a freaking box, Cole."

Just as Link said it, Rhett pushed a box against Cole's chest. He grabbed it instinctively, suddenly startled, before looking up at his little brother's face.

"You heard the man," Rhett said with a wide grin. He wasn't about to let himself be the only McLaughlin bossed around by Link Neal.

 

Once everything was loaded back up and the van was hitched onto the U-Haul, the time for farewell hugs finally arrived.

Rhett and Link's parents had come to say goodbye and to help out with the kids. As he approached her, Rhett’s mom pulled a bag of trail mix she had prepared for him from her oversized jacket and placed it in his hands. 

“Just a snack for the road,” she smiled, dabbing at her eyes as Rhett wrapped her into a hug. She knew her son was a bottomless barrel when it came to food, and he was bound to get hungry as soon as they set off. Rhett smiled and thanked her. This was a small way of giving her blessing for her son’s decision to leave home, a physical manifestation of her prayers for his safety and happiness. 

“Good luck, son. Careful driving in the snow.” Rhett’s dad looked up at him and shook his hand firmly. 

Rhett and Link finished their rounds, saying goodbye to Cole, his family, and their parents and thanking them all again for agreeing to help their wives over the next few weeks.

And it was a good thing they were there to help Jessie and Christy with the kids -- as they prepared to leave, it became clear that Rhett and Link were leaving their wives seriously outnumbered. 

Jessie, who was holding Shepherd in her arms, stood next to Christy, also holding her youngest son against her chest. Lily, Link’s daughter, stood at Christy’s other side, leaning into her mother’s arm and talking to the one-year-old Lando. 

Locke and Lincoln, thinking they were being really inconspicuous, tried to hide away in the van. Rhett just shook his head while Link went after them.

He opened the van door on Locke's side, picking him up before his honorary nephew could escape. He set him back down outside before going back in for Lincoln. His son, unlike Locke, didn't come out kicking and screaming, but clung to his father.

"Please, Dad! I wanna come with you and Rhett!" the young boy said sweetly, his arms wrapped around Link’s waist as he reached the ground again.

"Me too!" Locke chimed in, running back toward Link to help Lincoln in his pleas.

Rhett walked over to them, wearing a smile on his face as he stopped to ruffle Lincoln's hair. He knelt, putting himself at eye-level with the two young boys, and lowered his voice conspiratorially. "I'm sorry guys, but you two have to stay and help your moms with everything, okay? They need you to be really good when we’re not here."

The two boys only nodded. Rhett pressed a kiss to the top of Locke's head before taking his hand and walking back toward the rest of their families. “But Lily’s in charge,” Rhett added, winking at Link’s daughter as she ran to give him a final hug.

As they said goodbye to each other's families, Christy made a request of Rhett.

"Make sure he gets there in one piece, will you?”

Even though Rhett and Christy tried their best to care for him, Link always seemed to find a way to injure himself. It was a natural talent.

"I don’t know if I can promise that," Rhett laughed. "But I promise all pieces will be delivered back to you safely."

"Deal."

"It may be late here, but call me when you stop at night," Jessie said when she finally got ahold of her husband.

"I will." Rhett pressed a kiss to her lips and then another to Shepherd's cheek. "But you have our schedule, just in case."

"We do," Christy answered for her as Link released his grip on her waist and planted one more kiss in her hair. “We’ll be following along with mythical beasts everywhere.”

Rhett looked back and forth between the two women and lowered his voice. “Y’all gonna be alright?”

The three older children were chattering away behind them, occupied by their grandparents, and the four people who had become two families a decade ago broke into excited, nervous smiles. 

“This is actually happening!” Christy whispered back at Rhett as Jessie hooked her free arm around his waist once more. “We’ve got this,” she assured him.

They were a team, the four of them. That’s how they’d gotten to this point, and it’s how Rhett and Link knew they’d make it in California.

“Thank you again,” Link offered, looking first Jessie and then Christy in the eyes. “I don’t know what we’d--”

"Okay, enough! Y’all are running late. Have fun!" Jessie broke in, pulling Rhett tighter before giving him a little shove.

Link winked at them. "Always," he said, waving to their parents and kids before turning to walk toward the cab of the truck.

“Wow, hold up!” Rhett called out, chasing after him. “Where do you think you're going?” 

“I’m going to California. You comin’?”

“Who said you were driving?”

Link scoffed. “Who said _you_ were driving?”

“Um, these did,” Rhett said, holding up the keys.

“Nah, gimme,” Link motioned for Rhett to throw the keys to him. “This is what you get for complaining about having to haul my van around. I’m driving.”

“If you wanted to drive maybe you should have driven the van, then,” Rhett laughed, moving toward the driver’s side of the truck. 

“You boys change your mind?” A woman’s voice came from behind them as they stared each other down. 

Link lifted his eyebrows, motioning once more with his fingers for the keys, and this time Rhett tossed them his way. 

“Yeah, I didn’t want to haul your soccer mom van around anyway,” Rhett grinned. “Let’s do this, man.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! We love feedback, and your comments would be much appreciated!
> 
> You can find both of us on Tumblr: we're [mythicalseries](http://mythicalseries.tumblr.com/) and [clemwasjustagirl](http://clemwasjustagirl.tumblr.com/).


End file.
